2nd General Assembly, Praha
EQAR members convened for their 2nd General Assembly on 25 March 2009 in Praha, Czech Republic. The meeting was held on the day before the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) met, also in Praha, to prepare the next Bologna Process ministerial meeting, which will be held this April in Leuven and Louvain-La-Neuve.
Representatives of Slovenia, which has joined EQAR as Governmental Member right before the General Assembly, and Ireland, which had signed up for governmental membership already last summer, were warmly welcomed at their first General Assembly.
The General Assembly discussed EQAR’s first annual report. The report, covering EQAR’s activities in 2008 from its founding to the inclusion of the first agencies on the register, will be published when Europe’s ministers of higher education meet in April to take stock of progress in the Bologna Process.
Following the end of her mandate in the European Students’ Union (ESU) last year, Anne Mikkola, who had served as Vice-President of the Executive Board since EQAR’s founding, had resigned from her post to allow a new representative of ESU to take over. The General Assembly by-elected Bruno Carapinha, a member of the ESU Executive Committee.
Bruno will also take over as President of the Executive Board from 1 April 2009, following an agreement to rotate functions annually amongst the representatives of EQAR’s four Founding Members. The General Assembly thanked Anne for her work and wished Bruno a successful mandate. Lesley Wilson, who has been its President since March 2008, will continue to serve on the Board as the Treasurer. Emmi Helle and Andreas Orphanides will serve as Vice-Presidents for the coming year.